Boehner: Obamacare Must Be on Table During Budget Talks

President Barack Obama must show a willingness to cut back the healthcare reform law during budget negotiations, says House Speaker John Boehner.

“President Obama has won re-election, but his healthcare law is still driving up costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. As was the case before the election, Obamacare has to go,” Boehner writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

“The president’s health care law adds a massive, expensive, unworkable government program at a time when our national debt already exceeds the size of our country’s entire economy. We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford to leave it intact.”

That’s why Boehner already has made it clear that Obamacare must be part of the congressional-White House discussions on reducing government debt.

“Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct thorough oversight of the executive branch, and congressional oversight will play a critical role in repealing Obamacare going forward,” he writes.

With the Supreme Court mostly upholding Obamacare and the president winning re-election, that oversight and state actions are the only avenues left for repeal, Boehner says.

House committees can go after various elements of Obamacare, he says. And state governments can do their part by resisting government-run insurance exchanges.